1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an air conditioner and methods of its operation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An air conditioner according to the prior art includes, as illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, a suction grille member 5 formed with a plurality of suction inlets 3 for sucking in room air and disposed at a lower portion of an indoor unit body 1 (hereinafter referred to as a body), and a discharge outlet 7 formed at an upper front surface of the body 1 for discharging indoors the air which is heated or cooled while passing through the air conditioner.
The discharge outlet 7 is provided with horizontal vanes 9 swingable about horizontal axes for vertically adjusting the direction of the air discharged indoors therethrough and vertical vanes 11 rotatable about vertical axes for horizontally adjusting the direction of the air.
The air conditioner is provided with a discharge outlet door 13 for preventing foreign objects from entering therethrough and for forming an external appearance thereof.
The body 1 includes a cover member 15 for forming an external appearance thereof and for protecting the various elements therein.
The cover member 15 is provided with a manipulating unit 17 for adjusting the amount and direction of the air discharged through the discharge outlet 7, selecting the operating modes (automatic, cooling, heating, dehumidifying, blow and the like) and to start/stop the operation.
As illustrated in FIG. 3, driving means for horizontally moving the discharge outlet door 13 is formed by a support member 19 fixed to an upper front area of the body 1, a discharge outlet motor 21 fixed to the support member 19 to generate a power for vertically moving the discharge outlet door 13, a pinion 23 coupled to an axis 22 of the discharge outlet motor 21, and a rack for changing a rotary movement of the pinion 23 to a rectilinear movement.
Furthermore, driving means for moving the horizontal vanes 9 includes a louver motor 27 (by way of example, a stepping motor) disposed in the body 1 and a plurality of link members 29 for being cooperatively driven by the louver motor 27 to thereby rotate a plurality of horizontal vanes 9.
In the air conditioner thus constructed, when a user selects an operation mode according to the manipulation of a remotely controlled unit or an operating unit 17 to thereby activate an operation/stop key (hereinafter referred to as operation key), the discharge outlet motor 21 is driven in a forward direction to rotate the rack 25 downward, so that the discharge outlet door 13 coupled to the rack 25 is moved downward to thereby open the discharge outlet 7.
At this time, when it is determined by door open/close sensors attached at predetermined upper and lower positions of the discharge outlet 7 that the discharge outlet 7 is completely opened, the discharge outlet motor 21 is stopped, and an indoor fan (not shown) is rotated to cause the room air to be sucked into the body 1 through the suction inlet 3.
The room air sucked through the suction inlet 3 passes through a heat exchanger (not shown) to thereafter be heat-exchanged by latent heat of refrigerant flowing in the heat exchanger.
The heat-exchanged air is guided upward to thereafter be discharged indoors via the discharge outlet 7, which is then adjusted in its direction vertically or horizontally according to angles of the horizontal vanes 9 and vertical vanes 11 to perform an air conditioning in the room.
At this time, when an operation key associated with the horizontal vanes 9 is turned on at the operating unit 17, the louver motor 27 is rendered operative and a plurality of link members are cooperatively driven to vertically swing the horizontal vanes 9.
When the key is turned on again, the louver motor 27 is rendered inoperative and the horizontal vanes 9 is are stopped to thereby establish a vertical component of the direction of the air flow.
When the operating key is turned off under a normal operation of the air conditioner thus described, the discharge outlet motor 21 is driven in reverse, and the pinion 23 is driven to shift the rack 25 upward, so that the discharge outlet door 13 is moved upward to close the discharge outlet 7.
When it is determined by the door open/close sensors that the discharge outlet 7 is completely closed, the discharge outlet motor 21 is stopped and the air conditioner enters a stand-by state until the operation key is turned on again.
However, there is a problem in the conventional air conditioner thus constructed, in that the suction inlet 3 is open at all times even when the air conditioner is not operated, to enable dust, foreign objects and the like to be induced into the body 1 and to accumulate on surfaces of the heat exchanger and to thereby decrease the performance thereof.
There is another problem in that the vertical vanes 9 are randomly positioned when the air conditioner is turned off to thereby cause an unsatisfactory open/close operation of the discharge outlet door 13 due to contact between the door and the horizontal vanes 9 possibly resulting in a destruction of elements or an erroneous operation thereof.
There is still another problem in that upward travel extent of the discharge outlet door 13 may be limited due to a deformation of parts when a heavy load or the like is placed on an upper area of the body 1 to thereby press the upper area thereof downwardly. As a result, the discharge outlet door 13 may not be pushed far enough to enable the door open/close sensors to detect open/close operations of the discharge outlet door 13, thereby resulting in an error.